It took three days for him to recover.

But in the wake of the challenge of Ignis, Elijah felt better than ever before. For one, he had a brand-new spell – or five of them, if he wanted to get technical – and for another, he’d taken one more step toward reaching his class evolution. On top of that, everyone in his group had progressed significantly as well. So, as he soared through the air in his Shape of the Sky, he had reason to feel optimistic about his situation.

He banked, reveling in the feel of the air as it rippled past his wings. There was ethera at play, though it was so subtle that without Connection, he’d never have felt it. It was comforting, after a fashion, because according to the laws of physics with which he was familiar, there was no way he should have been capable of flying as easily as he did. No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than he saw something glinting in the distance.

He'd left the volcanic landscape of the challenge of Ignis behind, and the terrain had returned to its jungle-like roots. From his vantage, it looked like a carpet of green spread out below him. As he sped toward the metallic glint in the distance, it resolved into a silver spire jutting from the jungle. At first, he thought it was an obelisk like the Washington Monument, but as he drew closer, he realized that it was actually a tower. The highest point flared into a platform not unlike the Space Needle in Seattle, though entirely silver and flat on the top.

At the speed he could travel, it didn’t take Elijah long to reach the spire, and on closer inspection, he could see that it wasn’t in great shape. The silver exterior was terribly tarnished, with huge gashes running down the otherwise sleek sides, and a good chunk of the platform at the top was missing entirely. Elijah descended through the jungle canopy, and only a moment later, he found the missing piece half-buried beneath the local soil. Barely anything was visible above the surface, but via One with Nature, he could feel it well enough.

Elijah didn’t land on the ground. Instead, he latched onto the branch of an enormous tree, where he settled in to take stock of the situation. There was nothing alarming about the area. Sure, there were some wraiths hibernating beneath the ground, but not in abnormal numbers. Otherwise, the local wildlife was the same as he’d come to expect in the other parts of the jungle.

Still, it was difficult not to get lost in the sheer tide of vitality that came with such verdant terrain. There weren’t just thousands of organisms in the area. There were millions. Perhaps even billions. Some were microscopic – barely discernible even with his Connection-enhanced senses – but there were plenty of rodent-sized, stealth-based animals in the region. Normally, those would remain entirely unseen, but there was no hiding from One with Nature.

Then there were some larger animals. They were rarer, but no less impressive for it. Their little world shook with their every step. They were tyrants in their own right. Alpha predators who faced few challenges to their unquestioned authority.

To Elijah, it was beautiful. Everything coexisting. Not peacefully. Never that, but still, they all played their own little part in the ecosystem.

For a long time, he just watched. He listened. He felt. And it soothed his Mind in a way he couldn’t really explain. More than anything, he wanted to descend upon that jungle and become a part of that ecosystem. However, he knew that he didn’t belong. He was an outsider in a strange land, and the moment he took a part in that world, it would be irrevocably changed.

Maybe for the better, but more likely, it would be worse.

He let out a hissing sigh, then threw himself back into the air. A couple of flaps of his wings sent him soaring above the canopy. After a few times circling the spire, he realized that he could feel nothing inside. It wasn’t like the tomb he’d visited, where life simply didn’t exist within the confines of the crypt. Rather, it was as if something was blocking his senses.

That definitely didn’t bode well for whatever was inside, but Elijah couldn’t help but wonder what he might find in there. So, after seeing a door in the center of the platform, he landed and decided to give it a look. Upon setting down, he returned to his human form, then decided to check his status before descending into the spire:

Name

Elijah Hart

Level

106

Archetype

Druid

Class

Animist

Specialization

Connection

Alignment

N/A

Strength

188 (122)

Dexterity

176 (110)

Constitution

193 (133)

Ethera

166 (128)

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Regeneration

197 (119)

Attunement

Nature

Cultivation Stage: Adept

Body

Core

Mind

Soul

Iron

Whelp

Jade

Novice

With all of his equipment on and his buffs active, his attributes were enormously enhanced. His Regeneration was on the verge of passing the two-hundred mark, and he expected that it wouldn’t be too long before all the rest of his attributes followed suit. It wasn’t often that he wasn’t under the influences of those powerful bonuses, but on the rare occasions when he took off his armor and let the buffs fall away, the difference was more than noticeable.

More impactful was his progression to the Iron Body stage. It seemed that every day was accompanied by a little better acclimation to the new tier of cultivation. He’d felt a difference immediately upon achieving that mark, but he’d felt himself growing stronger with every passing day. He knew it would eventually level out as he grew more used to the influx of power, but for now, he found himself reveling in the ever-increasing strength of his body.

He hadn’t expected the acclimation process, but in retrospect, it made sense that he wouldn’t immediately be able to push his body to its limits. It took time to adjust to the other categories of cultivation – especially his Soul and Mind – so the Body being similar wasn’t terribly surprising.

That step forward was probably the reason that the others hadn’t fully recovered from the challenge of Ignis. There were still some lingering injuries that took even Ron’s powerful heals some extra time to mend. Elijah, on the other hand, was in perfect condition, which was why he’d gotten restless and chose to explore a little.

He approached the door, which was set into the top of the platform. The entire structure was made of some sort of silvery metal, but Elijah felt fairly certain that it wasn’t actually silver. More importantly, a note of ethera ran through it, suggesting that it was far more magical than it appeared at first glance. After a little effort, he managed to lever the door open, letting loose a burst of stale air and revealing a stairway that led deeper into the spire.

Elijah descended the steps, and to his surprise, the moment he crossed the threshold, his senses were unmasked. However, he could only feel the corkscrew passage that led down into the tower. He produced an ethera-powered flashlight he’d bought back in Seattle from his Ghoul-Hide Satchel and proceeded deeper. It only took a moment before he found the first cell.

After a single glance inside, he identified the building’s purpose. It was a prison, and oddly, the cell he was looking at was remarkably similar to those back on Earth. The bars maintained a spiral pattern as opposed to the vertical orientation of the cages back home, but the purpose seemed identical.

Especially considering that Elijah could see the remains of the former resident. The skeleton was bare of any flesh, and only a few ragged strips of cloth remained of their attire. He shifted the flashlight, and he saw claw marks upon the wall, suggesting that the ta’alaki had attempted to tear their way through the silvery metal.

When Elijah touched the bars, he felt a low hum of ethera coursing through the material. It was weak, but still noticeable enough. Beside the cell, set into the wall, was a small depression that looked like a sunburst with seven rays extending from the central circle.

He shook his head and continued his exploration, finding dozens of such cells on his way to the bottom. There was no indication as to what had happened, but at the lowest level, he did find a cell that seemed far more isolated than the rest. Inside was the skeleton of a large ka’alaki, the distinction between the two native species made clear by the presence of legs. Nestled within the confines of its ribcage glinted something crystalline.

Elijah tried to bypass the bars, but his efforts proved insufficient. He couldn’t even rattle the cage, much less get inside. So, after a few minutes of trying, he moved on, eventually discovering a collection of mundane rooms. They’d all been deserted, but judging by the presence of furniture like beds, desks, and cabinets – inside of which were some low-quality and degraded weapons – it wasn’t difficult to ascertain that he’d found the living quarters of the guard staff.

Finally, he stumbled upon an apartment that was a little larger and better furnished than all the rest. For quite some time, he searched the collection of rooms – there was a bedroom, an office, a sitting room, and what Elijah suspected was a bathroom – until he had to acknowledge that there was nothing there. Anything that wasn’t made of metal or stone had succumbed to the ravages of time. He did find a gold dagger that he stuffed into his satchel, though.

Just as he was going to chalk it up to an interesting but ultimately useless expedition, he felt something via One with Nature. Crossing the room, he knelt beside one of the tiles on the floor.

There was something below it. A cavity that he suspected contained something interesting. So, without further ado, he smacked it with his fist. Surprisingly, the tile didn’t shatter. He hit it again, but to a similar lack of results.

“Alright, then. Bringing out the big guns.”

In this case, the big guns in question happened to belong to a giant ape-lizard monster with way too much Strength. After shifting into his guardian form, he reared back and smashed the tile with a double-fisted, two-handed blow that should have been enough to pulverize rocks. But the result was only a hairline fracture in the surface of the tile.

“Damn,” he muttered to himself, seeing how much damage it could take. Still, now that it was cracked, it wouldn’t take much to shatter it completely. So, he repeated his actions and, after three more blows, it broke. Unfortunately, when it did, it released a wave of ethera-laced force that sent him flying backwards until he collided with the wall hard enough to dent it.

He also received a severe concussion for his trouble. Thankfully, his Regeneration helped him shake off the cobwebs – at least enough that he remembered to shift back into his human form and cast a couple of heals that mended his bruised brain and, he suspected, cracked skull.

Once he was back to normal, Elijah pushed himself to his feet and approached the brand-new hole in the ground. Upon first glance, he only saw the remnants of rotted cloth inside. However, peering closer, he found something solid. He reached down and wrapped his fingers around the object in question, and when he pulled it free and dusted it off, he saw that he held a key.

Of course, it didn’t really look like keys back on Earth. Instead of a toothed hunk of metal, it was a crystal cylinder with seven prongs spreading from its tip. Yet, Elijah recognized it the moment he saw it, because he’d seen similarly shaped receptacles beside each of the cells on his way down. It didn’t take a genius to make the connection. What’s more, there was one cell that begged for his attention.

So, without further delay, he retreated to the cell in question, and to his surprise, he found that the key worked its magic without issue. So, after the door swung open, he stepped inside and dug through the skeleton to retrieve the glinting item from its confines within its ribcage. Once he wrapped his fingers around it, he pulled it free and held it aloft.

It was a fluted cylinder with a bulbous piece at one end and a slot in the other. Elijah stared at it for a moment, but he couldn’t identify its purpose. However, what he could feel was the dense ethera swirling within. It was obvious that the item was valuable – perhaps it was a weapon – so Elijah tucked it into his satchel and continued his search.

None of the other cells held anything that seemed important. That wasn’t surprising, considering that the spire was a prison. It probably would have defeated the entire purpose if the prisoners were allowed to bring valuables with them. Still, Elijah searched every single cell within the spire, finding nothing as he slowly worked his way back to the top. When he once again found his way to the platform at the tip of the tower, he saw that night had fallen.

So, after a quick glance at the site of his latest exploratory adventure, he shifted back into the Shape of the Sky and flew toward where he’d left his companions. It was time to move on to the next challenge, and it was one for which he had high hopes. He’d spent quite some time underwater in the Sea of Sorrows level of his local tower, so he felt that he was uniquely qualified to attack the challenge associated with Niflara, the realm of the sea.